Fourth Wall Breaks

From Homestar Runner Wiki

Sometimes, the charactersbreak the fourth wall by displaying awareness that they are in an Internet cartoon.

Fourth wall breakages are common in Strong Bad Emails; Strong Bad often addresses the viewers, and references to his "email show" are made. Some of these supposed "fourth wall breaks" may be explained by assuming that Strong Bad has a live webcam show in which he answers emails, or that he is talking to an imaginary audience, but in other instances the characters actually refer to the fact that they are in cartoons, which is a real fourth wall break. Excluding Strong Bad Emails that involve a character addressing the viewers, here is a list of fourth wall breakages in the toons.

Flash is Dead! — The entire cartoon is about how Flash, the real-world software used to create and display homestarrunner.com, is dying. Strong Bad refers to flash as "what we breathe" and "the thing what creates us all". In addition, two chunks of Flash Authoring Interface fall from the sky.

At the beginning of the toon, Homestar tells the viewers to "pick a treat and drag it on top of us".

During the end discussion, Homestar asks if the viewers have voted yet (a feature for that year's toon) and then later requests that the characters repeat stuff they have already said to freak "them" out, both indicating that the characters know they are being watched and hand-waving the animation loop.

The House That Gave Sucky Tricks — Strong Bad imagines what a haunted house made by him would be like, saying "it would turn out a little something, a-like the following cartoon".

Later That Night... — Several lines are said throughout the toon that imply the characters are aware they're in a cartoon, such as Strong Bad's "That's everybody's favorite part anyways!" and his comment to Marzipan about her "never [having] very many lines".

crazy cartoon — After the Powered by The Cheat scene depicting Strong Bad giving The Cheat a trophy in front of the Tangerine Dreams, their normal selves are shown in front of the same computer from the same angle. Strong Bad questions whether or not the depiction actually happened.

the process — Strong Bad says "you can usually click on certain words and make little pictures of dumb stuff pop up."

couch patch — When Strong Sad objects to Strong Bad's side of the couch patch story, the latter sarcastically exclaims that "every loser out there" wanted to hear the former's side. Strong Sad says they do, and proceeds to tell it. Later, Strong Bad points out that the couch patch is clearly already present in Homestar's flashback.

monument — Homestar peeks out from behind the black as he sings, "Here comes the Thnikkaman!"

highschool — Strong Bad says that he was "probably just like other cartoons" in his high school days.

myths & legends — Strong Bad makes a static-like noise indicating a cut through static to the next scene, but is unsuccessful the first time.

senior prom — After Strong Bad says that he's "taking Delilelia to see David Coppafeel perform" and gets up, the camera zooms out to reveal him actually standing on the right side, causing him to jump out of view.

unnatural — Marzipan thinks that a giant Bubs's foot is actually "just in the foreground".

There are also mentions of "like twelve" different actors portraying The King of Town.

your edge — While in a deep, dark hole where only his eyes are visible, Strong Bad comments that he "suddenly feel[s] so easy to animate".

independent — Strong Bad refers to the cast of the Homestar Runner cartoons as "characters".

sbemail206 — Strong Bad says that "[his] favorite website looks like it's from another time period" when the Index Page is shown. Just before he "modernizes" it, Homestar Runner describes the page as "one of them Flash-y cartoon websites from 2002".

If Rather Dashing says "Haldo" to Dongolev without first talking to Mendelev, he will say, "What'd you read that in PQ Stragedy Guide? Go talk to my brother first."

If the player types "throw baby" before the baby has been acquired, the game will say that the player must have "misread the walkthrough on GameFAQS".

If "get broom" is typed in Naked Ned's house, the game will say, "No no. The broom is in the foreground and you can't take things in the foreground. You don't see me all typing 'get browser window', do you?"

When at the inn, the inn "takes up the entire screen".

When on the screen with Kerrek, typing "make friends with Kerrek" results in the message "Look, it didn't work for Strongbad and it's not going to work for you either."

After Strong Bad exclaims, "Onward to Strong Badia! Strong Badia, the free!" Homestar remarks, "Hey, that's the name of this..." but Strong Bad cuts him off before he can finish.

Also, when Strong Bad talks to Homsar after putting all the Homsartifacts in the pylon, Homsar tells Strong Bad that he will have to face a punishingly difficult dungeon and disappointing end cutscene.

strongbad_email.exe — On all of the disks, if the viewer doesn't make a selection in the Bonus Stuff menu, Strong Bad will enter and say "Time's up, choosy! I'm playing Trogdor!", and plays TROGDOR! for a little bit.